Stitches and Secrets
by BlindArcherCommissions
Summary: (This is a romantic Bruiseshipping one shot commission for kara-is-so-ninja on tumblr and her Ninjago Gangster/Apocalypse AU! I love the story and characters.) Raiding a supposedly empty house turns out to be a deadly situation for Jay and Cole. Bodies are piled everywhere, and Jay goes off on his own. I'm sure he's fine, right?


Cole raised an eyebrow as they traveled through the destroyed city, taking another puff of his cigarette. He blew the smoke out after a brief inhale, turning to Jay. "You're sure Pixal said there was a stash of supplies this way?" Jay looked up from staring at the ground as they walked, a nervous smile spreading along his face. "Y..Yeah, she said there was an abandoned house up here on the left. I don't think she'd lie to us. She might get a few details wrong, but everyone makes mistakes." Cole finished his cigarette as they neared the house, stomping it out on the ground. "Yeah well..I hope she was right." Cole slowly walked up the steps to the house, shaking his head as Jay followed behind him. "Remind me to keep an eye out for some toothpaste, Jay. I figure we could all use it..we're running pretty low back at our current base." Jay chuckled. "Toothpaste and some screws..I lost a few for Jay Jr's legs.." Cole checked the doorknob, surprised to find it unlocked. Most people these days tended to make their own locks, wanting to stay protected and safe. Pixal had said this place was..abandoned, but he was still a bit suspicious. Opening the door and leading Jay inside, he carefully began searching through the debris and discarded items. Old suitcases, vases, some paper torn up and tossed aside. "Geez..people sure leave in a hurry, don't they Jay?" The ginger chuckled and shook his head, tossing a tube of toothpaste he'd found in a bathroom at Cole. Cole grinned and caught it, waving it at Jay. "You still can't catch me off guard, Jay." Cole grabbed the canteen of water off his hip and popped the top, unscrewing the cap for the toothpaste. "Just give me a second here, man. I wanna get this taste outta my mouth." Cole left the room for a moment to go freshen his breath and clean his mouth, while Jay began taking apart a radio he'd found.

Cole headed back into the room after a few moments, packing the toothpaste away and offering the canteen to Jay in case he was thirsty. The ginger shook his head and watched Cole fasten the canteen back onto his belt. "I saw a locked door in the hallway, maybe we should go check it out!" Jay suddenly seemed excited at the idea of what could be behind the locked door, his expression shifting into a grin as his one good eye lit up with glee. "Maybe we'll find some screws! Or we'll find some cake for you!" Cole chuckled and ruffled Jay's ginger curls, watching his..friend. "Alright, alright. I'm suspicious of there only being one locked door in this whole place, but if you're that excited about it..let's go." Jay silently got up, placing the screws and other parts he'd pried from the radio in his bag. "It seems like Pixal was right, though." The ginger said, following behind Cole as they made their way to the locked basement door. "This place is pretty abandoned." Cole grumbled a bit and pulled one of the bobby pins he used to keep his bangs out of his face, out of his hair. "Yeah well..I just hope she was right." Cole pried the bobby pin apart and straightened it, slipping it into the keyhole of the lock. "I'd rather stay alive, and keep you safe." Cole paused in his lock picking, clearing his throat and adding to his statement. "Because you're my best friend, y'know?" A light blush crept into his face as he worked, finally popping the lock open. Jay frowned and watched Cole, slowly opening the door when Cole pulled away from it. "You alright man? You look like you got a fever." Cole chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess I might be getting a little sick." Jay shrugged and began heading down the stairs, keeping his bat ready in his hand. As the two went down the steps, the basement they entered seemed to have multiple rooms attached as well as another set of stairs that led to another level down below. Jay's voice shook a little as they got off the final step to the basement. "C..Cole is that-" He swallowed, feeling Cole's hand gently rest on his shoulder as they looked around the room.

Dark red splotches and splatters coated the walls on the basement, and Cole grimaced. "Yeah..it doesn't look like paint, Jay. So it's likely blood." Jay's grip on his bat tightened as he moved away from Cole, slowly walking around the room to examine it. "But there aren't any bodies, Cole. Not even rotted bodies or skeletons. Do you think whatever caused the blood is gone now?" Cole rubbed his fingers along a deep cut in the wall. It seemed..old. "Maybe? Its hard to tell. Just don't wander..-" Cole sighed when he saw Jay headed down the other staircase. "Off. Don't wander off. Dammit Jay-" He rubbed his face in slight frustration and then chuckled. "Just be careful, alright?" Jay grumbled from the next floor, sighing. "Yeah yeah hush up, Boulder-" Cole shook his head, silently exploring the other rooms in the basement. They both explored separately for a bit, but what Cole found..disturbed him. Most of the rooms had old blood, discarded rusty weapons and some dead Infected. Who used to live here? Did they _still_ live here? Worry crept into the back of his mind and a chill ran down his spine. What about Jay? He was still down there, and..! Cole quickly shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, taking the hair tie out and tying his hair back up. "No, no I'm sure he's okay. Right?" Cole asked absolutely no one, sighing and looking at the floor. He silently began digging through a dresser, shaking his head. Maybe he could find some weapons to keep and take back to the base. It should be fine, right? Cole dropped what he was holding when a sudden pained scream rang out from the second stairwell. That was Jay..he sounded hurt! Cole grabbed his bag and bolted down the stairs, only to see a woman with dark violet hair and grey eyes slowly turn around to face him. Cole was scared, frozen to the spot as he watched a demented little grin creep into the pale woman's face. She had a bloody knife in her hand, waving it at Cole as though she were greeting him. "Who are you? What did you do to..to.." Cole lost his voice when the woman opened her other hand, waving two pale skinned and bloody fingers at him.

He felt sick, watching her giggle and close her hand. She held the severed fingers to her chest like a child cuddling a stuffed toy. "Where..Where is..Jay-" His voice shook as he tried to calm the urge to violently spill the contents of his stomach because of the sight before him. The woman slowly lifted her head to look at Cole, stepping aside and tossing her knife up. She skipped away when she heard it land in Jay's shoulder, satisfied with the scream of pain the ginger let out. Cole felt..slightly useless, carefully kneeling down to Jay and picking him up in his arms. Jay's third finger and pinky were nothing but bleeding stumps on his right hand, now. Cole grimaced and carefully examined the rest of him. His left thigh and both shoulders had been damaged, deep gashes slowly staining his clothes with blood. Cole slowly carried Jay over to a wall, carefully laying him down. Jay let out a shaky breath as tears slipped down his freckled face. He could barely talk, but he managed to slowly turn his head toward Cole. "Sh..She caught me off guard while I was scavenging-" Cole shushed him and peeled his bloody jacket off, letting it lay under the ginger. 'You're alright. Just focus on my voice, alright?" Jay shakily nodded and shut his eyes, trying to ignore the searing pain in his body. Cole dug through his bag, hastily searching for any makeshift supplies he may have. "Take calming breaths, Jay-" Cole carefully pulled out a bottle of vodka, shaking his head. "Jay this is gonna burn like hell, but I don't have any water or soap on me." Jay groaned and shut his eyes tighter. "Oh fuck you, Boulder-" Cole paused and chuckled, cutting Jay's left pant leg off to expose the wound on his thigh. "I thought you didn't curse?" Jay snorted and opened his eyes, just to roll them at Cole in annoyance. "There are certain circumstances where I can-" Jay screamed as Cole poured the distilled spirit over his wound to clean it. "Caught you off guard, sorry-" Cole seemed..nervous, as though he'd been in this situation before..but Jay being the one injured was making him doubt his abilities.

Jay let out a shaky breath, trying not to focus on the pain as he felt Cole gently wiping the dirt and grime away from his thigh wound. "M..My fingers, Cole where are my fingers?" Cole grimaced and sighed, digging in his bag again. He had a spool of thread and a needle somewhere in here. "Sh..She took'em, Jay. And getting you cleaned up and stitched is more important to me right now. I don't want you to bleed out and d.." Cole swallowed the pain building in his throat as he fumbled with the needle, digging his lighter out of his pocket so he could burn and sterilize the tip. "Die. I can't let you die." Jay's expression softened when he saw a few tears slip down Cole's tanned cheeks. "Cole..?" Cole gasped in pain and nearly dropped the needle when Jay spoke, he'd burned his finger. Shushing the ginger and threading the needle with shaky hands, he went to work on Jay's thigh. "This might hurt a bit, bear with me. It's all I can do until we get back to base, okay?" Jay frowned, hearing the worry in Cole's voice. "Can..can you take this cloth and clean up where your fingers used to be? And apply pressure to the stumps." Cole said, shakily pausing in his stitching to give Jay the cloths. He could tell Cole was distraught, so he did what he asked to the best of his ability. It hurt every time he moved his shoulders. "Cole, the knife-" Jay winced as Cole began sewing him shut again. "How deep is it?" Jay slowly craned his neck, trying to get a better view of the knife. "N..Not very, maybe just the tip and a few inches of it after that?" Cole silently wrapped Jay's thigh up after stitching it up, shaking his head. "I should be able to pull it out without you bleeding out.." The shoulder wounds weren't bad. Jay's thigh and hand were the worst. After pulling the knife out and starting to clean both shoulder wounds, Cole let more tears slowly slip down his face. What if his sterilization wasn't enough? What if Jay couldn't stand to make it home? What if they got attacked on the way home and Jay died? Cole paused when he felt a shaky hand on his cheek, slowly finishing his wrap job and turning his gaze to Jay's face.

Jay weakly chuckled, rubbing Cole's cheek with his thumb. Friends..could do that, right? "I don't think I've ever seen you cry. What's eatin' at you?" Cole wiped at his eyes and watched Jay, shaking his head. "You're hurt, you dumb-" Cole looked down some and just cried, not caring if Jay saw. He couldn't keep up the tough guy facade right now. "I wasn't with you and you got caught-" His voice cracked and he carefully pulled Jay into his lap, making sure he wouldn't reopen any wounds. Cole gently held onto the hand that had been harmed, making sure there was enough pressure on the stumps that used to be Jay's fingers. "She hurt you real bad, Jay.." He shook his head and carefully laid his head on Cole's chest. "She hurt me, but if you keep pressure on my stumps, the blood will clot soon." Cole slowly looked down at Jay, painful worry clearly present on his face. "What if my sanitizing wasn't good enough? What if-" Jay swallowed, shaking his head. "You did fine, Cole-" He was nervous. Why was he nervous? He did like Cole..a lot. A lot more than a friend should, actually. But he didn't think Cole felt like that. He wasn't sure if it was from being disoriented from pain, or the fact that maybe he should just say something, just in case they didn't make it back to base. He should say it fast, just in case that crazy woman came back and decided she needed more fingers. Jay frowned when Cole slowly stood up with him in his arms and grabbed their bags, hoisting them over his shoulder. "Cole, I-" Cole shook his head. "Wait until we get outside, okay? We need to get out of this place in case she comes back." He was still crying..Jay could see the tears dripping down his face. Likely out of worry, or maybe the thought of Jay dying was too much for him? Jay silently laid his head down on Cole's chest as he was carried, shutting his eye. He would have time to speak once they were in a safer shelter. Jay must've dozed off in his arms because when he opened his eye next they were sitting on a tiled floor, in a locked up diner. Cole wiped at his eyes and looked down at Jay, a small smile crossing his face. "You're awake..sorry we aren't home. It uhm..it started raining." He gestured to the windows, showing Jay the storm raging outside.

Jay shook his head and lifted his head to look at Cole, giving him a weak smile. "It's okay, rest is good for someone when they're hurt. Rushing to the base when it's that far away would've left us both at a terrible disadvantage." Cole nodded and let out a shaky sigh. "I..I just didn't want you in danger, Jay. I feel dumb for not sticking with you. I-" Jay chuckled. " Cole, I..I'm not mad at you. I don't blame you at all, actually. Sometimes bad stuff happens." Cole shook his head. "But Jay I-" The ginger sat up in Cole's lap. "I learned a long time ago that you can't always prevent the bad stuff in life, y'know?" He forcibly chuckled. "I mean, I lost my eye and no one could stop the bullet." Cole frowned, watching Jay. "You got shot? I-" He took a breath. He could ask about that later. Silence filled the room for moment, and the Jay tilted his head up to Cole. "Why did you cry over me..?" Cole felt a slow blush creep into his face, looking down some as tears filled his eyes again. "I..I can't lose you, Jay. I just can't." He frowned, trying to figure out why Cole was so attached. "I've never seen you so..open about your emotions-" Cole sighed and shut his eyes, letting the tears slip down his face. "I never had anyone I felt being vulnerable with until I met you." He opened his eyes to look at Jay, giving him another smile. A slow blush filled Jay's face. What did he mean? "Cole, I-" He swallowed and shivered when Cole lifted his chin. "I..love you, Jay." The blush on Jay's face only darkened, his heart skipping a beat in his chest when he heard Cole's low, gravelly voice confessing to him. "I.." Cole chuckled a little and rubbed Jay's cheek with his calloused thumb. "It's okay if you don't feel the same. I just..we've known each other for a year and a half, and we get along so well. I guess I just love you because you're..you. You're a brilliant guy and a little impulsive, but I like that." Jay began stuttering, trying to process all this. "I-I..l-love you t-too, I just n-never knew you had feelings for me-" Jay's stuttering was cut off by Cole daring to gently press his lips to Jay's in a brief kiss. He slowly pulled away, giving Jay a smile and chuckling.

 _ **"Now you know, Bluebell."**_


End file.
